All posts tagged Arab Idol

Here’s a simple truth: reality TV is popular everywhere, even in the Middle East.

Yes, the most watched program in the United Arab Emirates in the past year was Arab idol, a take on the successful American Idol franchise. And what was the second most watched program? Arab’s Got Talent, a spinoff of Britain’s Got Talent.

In its first annual review on the television viewing habits of U.A.E. residents, Tview, the television audience measurement company set up last year, has come up with a list of the country’s favourite programs, channels and the advertisers reaching the most viewers. Read More »

Few technologies have divided the Middle East like Twitter: Young people love it; their governments not as much.

The San Francisco-based microblogging service played a significant role in facilitating the uprisings that shook the region two years ago and brought down the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya.

As Twitter now plans a public offering in the U.S., the mideast region — with both its potential and pitfalls–increasingly figures into the company’s future, according to Shailesh Rao, the company’s head of Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and emerging markets. Read More »

Mohammed Assaf of Gaza is the first Palestinian to win the Arab Idol award.

Tens of thousands of celebrating Palestinians flooded the streets of the Gaza Strip late Saturday and early Sunday after Mohammed Assaf, a wedding singer turned region-wide celebrity, won the “Arab Idol” singing competition.

Residents of the blockaded Palestinian enclave chanted, honked their car horns and waved Palestinian flags until the early hours of Sunday morning, according to television reports, cheering a hometown hero whose unlikely shot at fame has come to symbolize a national struggle.

Street celebrations were reported throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank to as far afield as Palestinian refugee camps in Northern Lebanon.

Saturday’s festivities marked a rare moment of levity for Gazans. Israel has imposed tight sanctions on the Gaza Strip since 2007, when the militant Islamist group Hamas wrested control of the area from the more moderate Fatah Palestinian political party.

The last time the Strip saw such celebrations was late November 2012 after Palestinian negotiators inked a cease-fire deal with Israel following a week-long Israeli missile bombardment that killed about 130 Palestinians. Read More »